Dojin’s tone had been one of calling him foolish, but Ttanttori seemed to have interpreted it in the exact opposite way.
“Th-that’s right. I’m way bigger than my hyungs and noonas, but my hyung and noonas taught me Hangul, taught me how to catch bugs too, and my hyung and noonas are really good at catching plump, chubby bugs! But they don’t eat them and give them all to me…….”
“Different diets?”
“My hyungs and noonas say they eat dew, so I tried eating dew too, but it didn’t fill my stomach at all. Then my hyungs and noonas gave me acorns, cornelian cherries, dried persimmons, and even snacks that humans dropped, but none of that filled me up either. So when my hyungs and noonas eat dew in the morning, I stay next to them and eat bugs that wake up early in the morning!”
“As expected… bugs that wake up early get eaten early….”
Dojin mourned the diligent bugs.
Iri listened with a heavy expression, then asked the divine spirit blocking the window for a sheet of paper. On the blank paper, he wrote down an address from somewhere and handed it to Ttanttori.
“After you molt, go find this address. That’s a Yung habitat. You’ll be able to eat lots of delicious things that Yung are supposed to eat.”
“I-I’m going back to where my mushroom hyungs and noonas are…. They’re all waiting for me.”
“…I see. Still, keep this note for now.”
Iri gently stroked Ttanttori’s feathers and finished drawing the circle.
Once the divine spirit and Dojin finished their tasks and stepped outside the room, Iri bent down and placed his hand on the floor. The ground outside the salt boundary swelled upward, forming a low wall. The visible portion was only about thirty centimeters high, but when Dojin reached out from outside and touched empty air, it felt as though the entire space was blocked by a transparent membrane, preventing entry.
It was a barrier that kept sunlight from leaking out and darkness from seeping in.
“It’ll take fifteen to twenty hours to molt. It’ll sting and prickle, like when an unripe scab peels off, but you have to endure it and not leave this room. Don’t scratch yourself with your hands either. You’ll scar your skin, and grown Yung always regret not listening about this.”
“O-okay…….”
“When you become an adult Yung, you’ll grow a thin, long, transparent blue tail, and your body will become slender. The area around your eyes will redden, your beak and claws will sharpen, and the ends of your eyebrows will split into three, making you look incredibly cool. The color of the feathers on your torso changes differently for everyone, so it’s unpredictable. Anyway, you’ll become a very handsome bird… though your diet will change a bit.”
“My diet?”
“You’ll know instinctively after you molt. I truly hope your molting goes smoothly.”
Ttanttori tilted his head. Iri didn’t say any more, worried that explaining too much beforehand might interfere with the molting. If Ttanttori stubbornly refused to molt… it would be something even the Eum-beoseot-i, who had steeled themselves for parting and sent him away, didn’t deserve.
One Immortal, one Jangsa, one divine spirit, and one stray ghost sat gathered around a table. Iri had originally intended to leave right away, but the divine spirit stopped him, saying it had been a long time and that they should talk a bit.
The divine spirit served tea with a bitter aftertaste and comparatively sweet yakgwa. However, the only one who touched the yakgwa was the Dark One. After nibbling a fingernail-sized portion of the yakgwa’s shadow, the Dark One crawled over in front of Dojin, belched, and flopped down. It had found what it considered a safe zone.
“Since you’ve come all this way down, won’t you stay the night? This isn’t your first time at our house, is it?”
“I should sleep at home…. When Ttanttori finishes molting tomorrow, take good care of him. Make sure you escort him all the way to the Yung habitat.”
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
Dojin poked the Dark One’s bulging belly a few times, then lifted his head.
“The Yung habitat? But Ttanttori said he was going back to the Eum-beoseot-i.”
“Once he molts, it’ll be difficult for him to keep living there. The staple diet of yokai Yung is mushroom yokai.”
“Ah…….”
Dojin let out a sigh. At that, his fingers pressed in harder, and the Dark One spat the yakgwa shadow back out.
“The Eum-beoseot-i probably knew that too, which is why they kept putting it off and only told him now, five years later.”
“So that’s how it was….”
Dojin stared at the tightly closed door. It was the room where Ttanttori was molting.
“From what I hear, it sounds like they raised him with incredible care. They must’ve been really sad sending him off to molt. Diet isn’t something you can overcome with sheer willpower, is it?”
“Unless you’ve got extraordinary willpower, it’s nearly impossible.”
“Then with enough willpower, it is possible…….”
Dojin muttered to himself, then ruffled his hair.
The Eum-beoseot-i, being mere yokai-like creatures, would live only about ten years, but Ttanttori, once he became a yokai, would have a natural lifespan spanning hundreds of years. Even if he molted and returned to the Eum-beoseot-i colony, at most he’d only have five years with them. For the sake of those five years, there was no need to force a change in his diet.
If Ttanttori were still just a yokai-like creature, it might be different, but once he became a full yokai, it was obvious how his way of thinking would flow.
“When people love each other but have different lifespans… it’s truly a sad thing.”
The Deokyusan divine spirit murmured this desolately, then suddenly sprang to his feet.
The divine spirit, who had been maintaining the appearance of a young student until now, changed his form. An old man clad in a scholar’s robe said, “Please wait a moment,” then went into the bedroom and came back out.
His arms were full of all kinds of ‘Shaman’ merchandise. Dojin made a strangled, disgusted sound.
“What the hell. Wasn’t everything already in the living room?”
“As if that were all. I’ve turned that other room entirely into my fangirling room.”
The divine spirit neatly arranged the goods one by one on the table. When the Dark One saw a keyring nearly as tall as itself, its eyes sparkled as it climbed on top of it.
Dojin stretched his arm straight out behind Iri’s back.
“There’s seriously every kind imaginable. You must’ve blown millions of won on this. Mountain Divine Spirits aren’t exactly… rolling in money, are they? Did you at least get a senior discount?”
“Fortunately, Deokyusan is fairly rich in acorns, so I exchanged the surplus acorns for cash at the welfare center.”
“So those bastards at the welfare center actually do their jobs, huh.”
Currency exchange work—converting virtue into money usable in human society. Housing work—finding residences for those who lost their homes as the human realm expanded. And beyond that, resolving the minor inconveniences Wia experience in daily life—that’s the welfare center’s role.
However, because so many Wia don’t even know the welfare center exists, they all come to the rental shop and ask Iri to fix this, handle that. For example, making a smartphone for a Wia and teaching them how to use it is also the welfare center’s job, but Wia naturally demand it from Iri instead. Iri, without complaint, has Ihaeja make it and even explains how to use it.
“How was the welfare center? Did they have many clients?”
“It was just me. The staff were either all out playing somewhere or watching TV and laughing their heads off. Over in one corner, they were even playing board games.”
“Ah, fuck. That pisses me off….”
Since they receive their virtue allotment month after month even without clients, they don’t make any effort to promote the welfare center. Both Iri’s divine spirits and Dojin had accumulated grievances.
“One of the staff was a Shaman fan, so we even had a fangirl chat. It was a pleasant time. Ah, right. Since it came up—when I fangirl, I take on a youthful appearance like earlier. That way, I can talk fandom stuff with kids these days. It’s not just me; other divine spirits do the same.”
Smiling faintly, the divine spirit handed Iri a doll modeled after a specific member. It was a pretty doll with pink hair and upturned eyes.
“You know this one too, Immortal, don’t you?”
Dojin scoffed in disbelief.
“How would my master know that kid’s name? I don’t even know it. My master doesn’t watch TV or listen to music. Because unlike those welfare center assholes, he has no fucking time. If there weren’t posters stuck up in divine spirits’ houses, he wouldn’t even know what ‘Shaman’ is.”
“I do know. It’s ‘Yoha’.”
Dojin’s mouth fell open as he stared at Iri.
“Yoha? This idol’s name is Yoha? How the hell do you know, Master? You have zero interest in idols or actors! Do you like this kind of face? A face that looks this… sly and bewitching? Isn’t a refreshing, bold face like mine better? How do you even know the name? Answer me. Hurry!”
“Dojin. This child is a fox yokai.”
“Fox yokai or whatever, why would you be interested in an idol—… huh?”
Dojin blinked.
“A fox yokai? What are you talking ab—.”
“This child is a fox yokai disguised as a human.”
“…….”
This time, Dojin’s mouth hung open.
“I hate to say this, but… Immortal’s disciple still has a long way to go in his cultivation…. To not even notice a fox yokai’s disguise.”
The divine spirit made an expression similar to Dojin’s earlier one—an unmistakable look of amused disdain.
Dojin hurriedly picked up Yoha’s photocard and examined it carefully.
“Wow… insane. Even knowing, I still can’t tell. They say dokkaebi and fox yokai are the best at disguises, but this just looks completely human.”
“That’s something fox yokai would find offensive to hear. Fox yokai can finish with a single midair somersault without any tools, whereas dokkaebi can’t even pull off a clumsy disguise without a hat.”
The divine spirit looked exceedingly proud of fox yokai.
Dojin found the divine spirit’s attitude irritating, but his fascination with seeing a fox yokai for only the second time in his life outweighed it. The fox yokai he’d seen at the Podo Office had only been a fleeting glimpse—this was practically his first real encounter.
